January 17, 2010
Dear All Souls folks,
As a RE teacher, I have lucked into visiting neighboring churches and faiths as the curriculum for the 6-8th grade class this year, and thought some of you might be interested in hearing what we've experienced. A number of the parents have been coming along, and found it fascinating. All these churches have been a short walk from All Souls. Everyone has welcomed us warmly (thanks to Nate for arranging our visits). What a rich opportunity. And it has helped me/us learn more about our UU faith, by getting more perspective on what other congregations do that is the same and what is different.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic - http://www.stmarynl.org
In honor of All Saints' Day (November 1), it was a "high Mass" with lots of singing, chanting and incense. The church has a very high ceiling and is full of stained glass windows. Father Washabaugh welcomed us from the pulpit, which was rather special. Afterwards, we had a chance to ask questions about their beliefs, symbols and rituals. Boy and girl "altar boys," their kids left partway through the service for RE as ours do (but scripture readings rather than our "story for all ages"). Some familiar hymns, with different words.
Shiloh Baptist Church www.shilohnl.com
Very participatory, people responding verbally, things repeated, no prayer books, tons of enthusiastic singing, 2 organs, trombone, drum set... Sermon message was We may be able to do it alone, but how great it is to have someone watch your back. That was easy to relate to! Many people talked to us, welcomed us, helped guide us if we weren't sure what to do.
St. Sophia's Hellenic Orthodox Church http://www.saintsophianl.org
Father Dean plus visiting Russian priest. Ornate gold robes for everyone, including the 8 altar boys (no girls). Altar through a a door in a wall under the big dome--priest's back was to us for the majority of the service, and his amplified voice seemed disembodied, since we couldn't see his face. Also, the 1 hr 45 min service was half in Greek--the kids did great! After communion, Fr. Dean came down and talked to the kids in very accessible way, not distant. Then they went off to RE and it was sermon time on Zachias. Tons of chanting. Choir sang, the congregation didn't really.
We hope to visit Rabbi Rosenberg's Temple Emanu-El (Jewish) http://ct001.urj.net/
and the Islamic Center of NL http://www.icnl.com/.
Perhaps also a Quaker/Friends' meeting and a Buddhist group. Other suggestions?
[Katrina] |
January 19, 2010
Hi All Souls,
Thank you, Katrina, for summing up our visits so far to other faith traditions. The curriculum is called "Neighboring Faiths," and for the most part we have been following it pretty closely. It has been done before at All Souls. Sandy Geaman, our former DRE, has told me that we have done it twice before, but not for some time. We began by asking the youth which faith traditions in the neighborhood they might like to visit. There were not many suggstions. We found a phone book. One (typical) youth turned right to the pizza pages and found "Mystic Pizza" and suggested we attend that "faith" tradition because the ad said, "Join us for a slice of heaven."
Ideally, the youth have several Sundays to prepare for each visit, during which time we get a somewhat crash course in the faith tradition of choice--Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Quaker, etc., and then place it in a UU context--how does it contrast with the way we worship? What is similar? Different? For our last visit, we did not have time to prepare except for a little while just before leaving on Sunday morning. We had incentive for sweet discussion in the Greek pastries and assorted donuts provided. Because of snow storms, the 100th anniversary celebrations, and the various intergenerational services toward the end of each holiday season, RE classes do not meet consistently, which is problematic in many ways. Still, the visits continue and the youth seem interested. It is especially valuable when the clergy or members of the congregation meet with our group to answer questions.
The Shiloh Baptist experience was the most impressionable for me so far. The stained glass images of Jesus and the Disciples are persons of color, which is interesting. The energy was moving, and while there was a trombonist, as Katrina reported, he played with a mute, which did not make any sense to me because that is not a quiet place--EVER! A muted trombone in that band is about as useful as using a garden shovel to plow my street after a snow storm.
This curriculum is good in that it gets the youth to pay attention to how different people worship. Going to All Souls every Sunday is just something we have always done, and now the youth (and parents) can better appreciate some of the reasons why people worship in the ways that they do, and that structures of worship vary. What will always be a challenge for UUs, whether young or old, raised in a UU church or if you are one who has come to it as an adult, it is never easy to pin down an identity. To be sure, even among UU churches worship is not standardized, names are not even standardized--we are UU congregations, churches, societies. One of the only rituals that seems collective is chalice lighting.
Our seven principles serve as a loose identity, and the less familiar sources also help us to define ourselves. In our RE classes we attempt to teach concepts and stories that follow our prinicples and sources. It is not really until we reach the 4th and 5th grade at All Souls do we start to begin to teach the heritage piece about our faith--where did we come from and what do we believe specifically. This is intentional. We want the children to plant their own seeds for religious thought using their own curiosities and experiences about the world first. What do they already know or think they know about being a social justice oriented little spiritual person, and how can they apply that to their daily choices. We choose this rather than force feeding a survey of religious and spiritual concepts too profound to comprehend at such young ages.
The Neighboring Faiths curriculum is appropriate for our youth. Obeserving different ways people worship in faith traditions that represent the very sources we acknowledge as part of our UU heritage and identity, is wonderful foundational field work that helps our youth to orient their minds around the very questions we are trying to inspire them to ask: what is my own spiritual makeup? How does it compare to the way others do it? What moves me? Or, in language they perhaps relate to better: what did I pay attention to during that service? What bored me? This course is literally thrusting the youth to practice the very principle we honor: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning in our lives.
As Katrina has invited, I, too, welcome your input into this adventure for our young people.
Thank you,
Nate
Director of Religious Education |
